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Chapter 6: The Miracle of Ordinariness

Bankei is saying, “We know only one miracle. We allow nature to have its own course, we don’t interfere.” Through interference comes the ego: the more you interfere, the more you manipulate, the more you feel you are somebody.

Look at the ascetics - their egos are so refined and subtle, so shiny. Why? - because they have interfered the most; you have not interfered so much. They have killed their sex, they have destroyed their love, they have repressed their anger, they have completely destroyed their hunger and the feeling of the body. They have reason to be egoists: they are somebodies. Look in their eyes, there is nothing except ego. Their bodies may be almost dead but their egos are at the supreme-most peak. They have become Everests.

These monks and saints will not be able to understand what Bankei means. He says: We know only one miracle - to allow nature to have its own course. We don’t interfere. If you don’t interfere you will disappear. Fighting is the way to be there.

People come to me and ask how to drop the ego. I tell them, “Who will drop it? If you try to drop it you will be the ego, and someday you will claim that, ‘I have dropped the ego.’ And who is this claimer? Who is claiming it? This is the ego, and the most subtle ego always tries to pretend egolessness.”

I also know only one miracle, to let nature have its course, to allow it, whatsoever is happening. Don’t interfere, don’t come in the way. Suddenly you will disappear. You cannot be there without resistance, fight, aggression, violence. Ego exists through resistance. This has to be understood very deeply. The more you fight, the more you will be there.

Why do soldiers feel so happy fighting? Fighting is not such a beautiful thing, war is just ugly, but why do soldiers feel so happy fighting? If you have once been to a war you will never be happy again in peace because the ego comes to such a peak fighting. Why, in competition, do you feel so happy? It is because competing, your ego arises; fighting you become stronger.

But fighting with another is never so ego-fulfilling because you may be defeated - the possibility is there - but fighting with yourself you cannot be defeated, you are always going to be the winner. There is nobody else except you. Fighting with another there is fear, the fear of being a failure; fighting with yourself there is no fear, you are alone. You are going to win today or tomorrow, but finally you will win because there is nobody else.

The ascetic is fighting with himself, the soldier is fighting with others; the businessman, fighting with others; the monk, fighting with himself. The monk and the ascetic are more cunning; they have chosen a path where victory is inevitable. You are not so calculating, your path is hazardous. You may be a success, you may be a failure, and your success can turn into a failure any moment because there are so many fighters around you, and you are such a small, tiny existence - you can be destroyed.